Faculty

Director

Melissa R. Root, Assistant Professor

BA, English and Comparative Literary Studies, Occidental College

MA, English, University of Denver

PhD, English, University of Denver

A literary scholar and fan of rhetoric, Melissa has taught at Naropa for six years. Currently teaching writing pedagogy, Writing Seminar I: Art of the Engaged Writer, and a Humanities Seminar titled Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie, Melissa is enjoying her classroom experiences and having fun directing the writing center. In her (wee little) free time, she enjoys reading, writing, running, and walking her dear dog Bennie.

Michelle Naka Pierce, Associate Professor
BA, University of New Mexico
MA, University of New Mexico, with distinction
MFA, Naropa University

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Michelle has taught courses in poetry, creative nonfiction, and pedagogy at Sakuragaoka koko in Yokohama, the University of New Mexico, Bard College, and Naropa University. She is the author of two books: Beloved Integer (2007) and TRI/VIA (2003), cowritten with Veronica Corpuz. Former director of the NWC from 2000–2007, she codeveloped the curriculum for Writing Seminar I and II in the Core and teaches avant-garde poetry and hybrid writing in the Department of Writing & Poetics. Excerpts from her manuscript She, A Blueprint for InterSurface, a collaborative document with collage art by Sue Hammond West, have been published in American Letters & Commentary, Trickhouse, Mandorla, Foursquare, Sous Rature, Upstairs at Duroc (France), and elsewhere. Michelle spent her spring sabbatical living in London and working on her new manuscript, tentatively titled Continuous Frieze Bordering Red.